Condolence: Dee entered our life as the second wife of George Gray, who had been a widower for nine years after the death of his first wife, Neva. She and George enjoyed their life together, travelling to many places they had never seen, and enjoying many visits to George’s cabin on his farm near Sutton. Having never been married before and having no grandchildren, she delighted in George’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren and called them her own.

She was an avid photographer, and our family has pictures she took of the grandchildren – as well as wildlife pictures from Africa, Alaska, and West Virginia – framed and hanging all over our house. She always had a camera at hand, and took some great pictures through the years that she shared with the family. Those pictures will always remind us of her.

Dee found a special place in our hearts with the kindness, compassion, and love that she showed to George as he gradually became totally disabled due to Alzheimer’s. For nearly ten years after he was afflicted with that disease, she prepared and fed him his meals, washed his clothes, ironed his shirts, decorated his room, and visited him every day. In George’s final years in the nursing home, when he was unable to communicate or interact with others, Dee’s presence had a noticeable calming influence on him when she would walk into the room and take hold his hand.

Dee led a robust and independent life until last summer when she was first diagnosed with cancer. She never retired from her job at the medical clinic, she was able to drive anywhere that she needed to go, she mowed her lawn (as well as the lawn at the Sutton cabin), and maintained all her hobbies and her relationships with co-workers, family, and friends. At first, we hoped that her strong will would conquer the cancer, but it was not to be.

After she received the news that her cancer was most likely incurable, we visited her, and I asked if she was going to be OK. I was referring to difficulties she may encounter by living alone. She interpreted my question differently, thinking I was instead talking about eternity. She responded, “I will be OK because I have faith.”

After her last release from the hospital and her placement in the hospice, she asked her friend Sherry to advise the family that she was looking forward to going to her heavenly home, that she still wanted visitors, but that she wanted us to talk about normal things like what we had been doing recently, the weather, and WVU football. She did not want us to talk about sad things. That was just two weeks ago, and we now take joy in the fact that she is in her heavenly home and will never again experience sadness, or cancer, or death.

By her example, she showed us how to live, and now has shown us how to die. Well done, Dee, good and faithful servant of the Lord!

Condolence: I am sorry to hear of Dee's passing. I got to know her as a fellow state officer with BPW. We went to many meetings across the state and country. I would occasionally see her at Krogers and we would catch up.